UK: U.S. Bomb Kills 3 British Soldiers

UK: U.S. Bomb Kills 3 British Soldiers
Published: 8/24/07, 8:05 AM EDT
By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) - A bomb dropped by a U.S. fighter jet was believed to have killed three British soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense said Friday. Two other soldiers were injured.

The ministry said the troops, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, were patrolling northwest of Kajaki in Helmand province on Thursday evening when they were attacked by Taliban insurgents.

The ministry said that "during the intense engagement that ensued, close air support was called in from two U.S. F15 aircraft to repel the enemy. One bomb was dropped and it is believed the explosion killed the three soldiers. "

The military did not identify the soldiers but said next of kin had been informed.

It said an investigation into the incident would be held.

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=8383&eeid=5372474&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=1&ck=&ch=ne

:shrug:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6962071.stm
<snip>
Three British troops have been killed in Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire, the Ministry of Defence has said.

It is understood the soldiers died when US fighter planes, called to support ground troops, dropped a bomb near their patrol in Helmand province.

Two other soldiers were also injured. Next of kin have been informed.

http://www.counterpunch.org/wright08232007.html

The War No Politician (or Oil Exec) Objects To
The Ongoing Tragedy of Afghanistan
By JOHN WRIGHT

The tragedy which is the history of Afghanistan was lost in the wake of 9/11. From that moment, in the eyes of a West now baying for revenge, it was a country reduced to nothing more than a terrorist base and training camp run with the blessing of a regime that gave new meaning to the word evil. Yet before 9/11 those same terrorists had won the paternal affection of government apparatchiks in Washington as a band of courageous liberation fighters who, with 'our' help, had successfully forced the Soviet Union to abandon a country it had invaded in order to add to is evil empire ­ at least according to Reagan and the coterie of right wing zealots who formed his administration back then.

But to understand why Afghanistan was and remains so important to US strategic interests is to understand the role it has played throughout its history in the global struggle for empire and hegemony waged by the great powers. This mystical land, occupying a strategic location along the ancient Silk Route between the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, has been the subject of fierce rivalry between global empires since the 19th century, when the then British and Russian Empires vied for control of the lucrative spoils to be found in the subcontinent of India and in Central Asia in what came to be known as the 'Great Game.' The British desired to control Afghanistan as a buffer against Russian influence in Persia (Iran) in order protect its own interests in India, which at that time was the jewel in the crown of an empire that covered a full third of the globe. Two Anglo-Afghan wars were fought during this period. The first saw the complete annihilation of a 16,000-strong British army in 1842, the second resulted in the withdrawal of British forces in 1880, though the British retained nominal control over Afghanistan's foreign affairs. This control lasted through to 1919, when after a third Anglo-Afghan war the British signed the Treaty of Rawalpindi, heralding the beginning of complete Afghan independence from Britain.

In terms of its development, Afghanistan remained untouched by the industrialisation that swept through the subcontinent at the time, as the British mercantile class set about the wholesale plunder and exploitation of India's human and natural resources. By contrast, Afghanistan's value to both the British and Russian Empires was solely strategic, which, along with a paucity of natural resources and rough, mountainous terrain difficult to traverse, combined to retard the country's economic development. A primitive agrarian economy predominated in Afghanistan, supporting a feudal system of control that has continued in the countryside in one form or another right up to the present day, with self-styled warlords wielding power of life and death over those who live under their control.

That said, there was a point in Afghanistan's tortured history when the future looked bright, when a determined effort to lift the country and its people out of backward agrarian feudalism almost succeeded.

It began with the formation of the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) back in the sixties, which opposed the autocratic rule of King Zahir Shar. The growth in popularity of the PDPA eventually led to them taking control of the country in 1978, after a coup removed the former Kings' cousin, Mohammed Daud, from power.